I cannot have milk. Has anybody ever tried making corn meal with almond milk instead of dairy milk?

BTW, the native Americans made all their bread by grinding the flour, mixing it up with whatever other ingredients they used, rolling the dough into small balls or cakes, and dropping it into rapidly boiling water or fat, and then scooping it out and eating it right away. They did not let bread "stand" because it started to taste like crap very quickly as it cooled off but was delicious when newly made.

So the idea that an older recipe is "the real thing" gets invalidated because there is always a still older recipe that came before it. I don't add sugar to cornbread, but I use maple syrup either in it or on it.

I have tried several different brands of corn meal, some gritty some not so gritty. I have settled on Indian Head brand which seems to be a finer grind. I am from the South (North Carolina) and appreciate both sweet and no sugar corn bread. To me, they are completley different entities each with their own pros and cons. I treat the two as a fine wine, you have to pair them with what you are cooking! Also, wouldn't dream of using anything other than a cast iron skillet in the oven, the crust this method produces is part of what corn bread is all about to a Southerner.

double the milk--for which you should sub buttermilk if you can--light. light result. mix your egg(s) into the milk well with a fork, then add in the "jiffy" till just incorporated, just a few stirs. let rest for 10 minutes or more, then with rubber spatula gently transfer the now lightly risen batter into

an iron skillet in which you have melted butter in your preheating oven:
for 1 box, melt half a stick (4 oz.) in an 8 inch skillet
for 2 boxes, melt 1 stick in a 10 or 12 inch one

it is delicious. it is southern. you will gobble up every crumb. it is wonderful with everything and if you are ever lucky enough to have a leftover serving, butter the cold top and reheat in the oven till it's warm and you will never have a better breakfast.

you'll love it.

i love your site.

PS bake this cornbread about 10 minutes longer than the jiffy box instructions call for, like, 20 minutes for 1 box, 30 for 2. the top should be quite golden brown.

Right now I'm abroad in rural SE Asia and the other Americans and I recently were struck with a serious craving for cornbread.

We managed to get cornmeal brought by a friend, but we are lacking in some important cooking implements. Thais do not use ovens, or cast-iron anything.

What we do have is a basic frying pan, a gas powered stove-top and a charcoal fueled ceramic bucket-shaped thing which they use for grilling fish and meat. We have made regular bread successfully by putting the risen dough inside a large ceramic pot and cooking it briefly over the charcoal fire. However, we are now at a loss for how to approach the cornbread challenge. Does any one have any ideas?

I've made a lot of variations on cornbread, and generally speaking, Southern Style corn breads tend to be salty and have little or no flour vs corn meal. In New England where I live, there is something called Great Northern cornbread. This is best made in a cast iron skillet. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F, or 205C. In a large sized mixing bowl whisk 1 cup of stone ground corn meal such as Indian Head, or Bob's Red Mill, with 1 cup of unbleached white flour, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 tsp of baking powder, 1/2 tsp of baking soda. Melt 1/4 pound of unsalted butter in a cast iron skillet. Leave the skillet on the stove on low heat while you mix the wet and dry ingredients. Pour the melted butter into a second mixing bowl, whisk in 1 cup of milk, and 1 egg. Add the liquid mixture to the dry, turning the mixture over with a rubber spatula until fully mixed. Pour the batter into the warm skillet. It should sizzle as the batter flows in. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until a toothpick come out clean from the bread. Lay a dinner plate upside down on top of the warm cornbread 10 minutes after it come out of the oven, and invert it over while keeping your hand on the plate. The bread should easily pop out of the pan ready to serve.

There is nothing more debated (other than one's fried chicken recipe or pecan pie recipe) than a cornbread recipe.
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Please do not insult corn bread by putting sugar in it. You are doing a disfavor to yourself and your family.

Agree wholeheartedly. I grew up in East Texas and SW Arkansas and this was the way my mom and both my grandmothers made cornbread and one of them was from Southern Louisiana.

As for the cast iron skillet used only for cornbread, it is also used to cook bacon or fatback in order to keep the seasoning flavor in the pan. My mother got her cast iron set from her great-aunt who had ordered it out of a Sears catalog in 1898. When I left home to go out on my own, she gave me her cornbread skillet which is now well over a 100 years old and still making great cornbread.

amateur wrote:

But I just read the last comment by lutie to which I must respond... bite me!

There will be sugar in my concoction.

Don't get hostile, there nothing wrong with putting sugar in it but some folks call that corn cake and not corn bread. Cornbread is just one of those things that how you grew up eating it (if it was good to you) is how you consider it to be right. My mother made corn muffins in the little corn shaped muffin pans and she always made those with sugar. I think she used the Jiffy Mix as mentioned elsewhere and used sour cream and creamed corn.

Go ahead, experiment, you can't succeed without failing a few times when you go out on a limb and that is part of the fun. I think that is one of the things that draws a lot of people to forums like this. Its the trying that is fun and when you make a change that works write it down then crow about it on these forums.

A lot have people have mentioned the differences in sweetness of the cornbreads/ corn/ cornmeal. I would like to say that I have lived in many very different corn producing regions, all corn is different. Where I live now the corn is so sweet this year I can hardly eat it, other years it has been very plain. These factors such as corn variety, soil, moisture, all change the flavor of the starting product. So, if someone wants to use sugar, they might not have the best corn/ cornmeal to start with, or maybe they tried some that was made with super sweet corn/cornmeal and believe thats the best way.

Lutie....do get a life! The first person who initiated this discussion forum specifically looked for a sweet corn bread recipe. You did not have to be hostile toward him/her or anyone who does indeed add sugar in their corn bread (which apparently, is called corn cake rather than corn bread). I bet if one digged in your life, you'd be filled with millions of imperfections; have experimented plenty (and if you ar elucky, hopefully it's just not with your corn meal). If you ar egoing to be this kind of a pissy self-righteous b...tch, cloe your computer and dont ever advance one mor eword in ant forum. We don't like negative, up my ass kind a people like you.

As for this forum...great ideas on corn bread recipes and variations. Ignore the likes of Lutie....she needs a real happy life!